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DULCE ET DECORUM EST PRO P ATRIA MORI." 



A VINDICATION 

OF THE 

rOLUNTEEPiS OF CASTLETON, 

By Rev. EDGAR L. HEERMANCE. 



A 



DISCOURSE 



IN COMMEMORATON OF 



JAMES P. BELL, ANDREW B.YAN BUREN, JACOB SCHLEMER, 

WILLIAM SCHLEMER, ALBERT SMITH, DAYID ROSE. 

JOSEPH CRYNE, AND OTHER YOLUNTEERS FROM 

CASTLETON, N. Y., WHO HAYE DIED IN THE 

NATIONAL ARMY DURING THE 

PRESENT WAR. 



PREACHED IN THE 

REF. PROT. DUTCH CHURCH, OF CASTLETON, 

JULY 31, 1864, 
By Rev. EDGAR L. HEERMANCE, 



ALBANY: 

VAN BENTHUYSEN's STEAM PRINTING HOFSE. 

1864. 



TO THE MEMBERS OF MY CHURCH 
^ISTD CONaREaA.TIO]Sr. 



The accompanying discourse was preached by special request. 
I told those asking me to preach in commemoration of their 
fallen relatives, that such a discourse would, under existing 
circumstances, require a justification of the cause for which 
their dear ones gave their lives, and would therefore be mostly 
occupied with a discussion of public affairs as related to the war. 
They, with this clear intimation of the general character of the 
discourse, still refjuested its delivery; and, although I foresaw 
that it would be misrepresented and censured as "Political 
Preaching," I did not feel free to decline their request, because 
(1.) It was a proper one, and because (2.) The call, so to speak, 
appeared a providentially appointed opportunity to present to 
you the truth respecting things in regard to which some of you 
had been deceived, and this, not in unimportant matters, but in 
those vitally related to the interests of your Country, and of 
God's Kingdom. 

A good part of you were pleased with the discourse when 
delivered, and some expressed a wish to have it printed. This 
was gratifying to me, but alone would not have led me to think 
that it was wise so to do. The chief reason for publishing the 
sermon grows out of the fact that a considerable number of 
those hearing it appear to have greatly misunderstood its char- 
acter and intention, and that some who heard it, and others who 
did not, misrepresent it to my personal injury, and, what is 
much more important, to the injury of our church. 

These are evils which it is my duty, if it can be rightly done 
to counteract ; and to this end I publish the sermon. 

And, besides, I hope thereby to help some of you to disabuse 
your minds of some errors which appear to be fastened upon them 
in a way which can only be hurtful to you, and grievous to Our 



Heavenly Father, who wishes us all, you know, to be free from 
error, and the sins of error, by reason of the full indwelling of 
the Truth. In the discourse, as now presented to you, I have 
introduced what is called " The Historical argument against 
Secession," which for fear of wearying you, was omitted at its 
delivery. Except this addition, the sermon is printed as you 
heard it. 

Of the truth of the facts of the discourse, I am certain ; its 
reasoning I believe to be sound : and its purpose was such a 
eulogizing of your dead as would best improve the hour given 
to the grateful service. 

I ask of you all a careful, unprejudiced reading of the sermon ; 
and pray for your full enjoyment of that Blessed Presence, 
whose indwelling is Light, and Joy, and Peace. 

YOUR PASTOR. 



DISCOURSE. 



EccLESiASTES, 3, 8. '"'A Time of War.'' 
II Samuel, 10, 12. •' Be of good courage, and let us play the men for 
our peojjle ; — and the Lord do that which secmeth Him good." 

War is a terrible thing ; and so is surgery, and 
much of medical practice, and parts of the admin- 
istration of civil justice. 

To amputate a limb ; to give poisonous potions ; 
to arrest, try, convict, imprison for life, or hang 
by the neck until dead, a fellow man, are all 
terrible, fearful things to do, and yet we do them, 
must do them ; except we did do them when cir- 
cumstances made them necessary, we should be 
recreant to our duty ; and, however much we 
might think ourselves kind, would in reality be 
most cruel to our families, our neighbors, and all 
other men. 

There is a time for these things — a time when 
they are right, a time when, despite their essen- 
tial hatefulness, their omission would be a most 
hurtful, wicked, wrong ; and, likewise, although it 
is so sad, so fearful a thing, there is a time for 



6 

war; i. e., a time when it cannot be rightly 
avoided, but must be received as an inevitable 
incident of our lives, which we must accept and 
meet in the appropriate way. 

So Solomon, whose name is a synonym of 
wisdom, thought, as appears in a part of the scrip- 
ture preface to my discourse. It is taken from 
Ecclesiastes, which is substantially a review of 
Solomon's long life, and gives the result of his 
extended observation and experience. 

He had seen that earth was not a theatre for 
the display simply of what was gladsome, and 
bright, and beautiful ; but that into its drama 
entered things dark, and stern, and sad ; all of 
which must be noticed and remembered, if we 
would understand the scene, and be prejjared 
wisely to act our parts therein. There is, he 
says, 

" A time to be born, and a time to die : 

A time to plant, and a time to pluclc up that which is planted : 

A time to kill, and a time to heal : 

A time to love, and a time to hate : 

A time of war, and a time of peace." 

Solomon could well say that there is a time 
for war ; a time when it is inevitable, and must 
be entered upon if one would rightfully act his 



part in the great contest between good and evil, 
of which earth is the stage. 

He was a near descendant of those who, in 
obedience to God's command, and under his guid- 
ance, had waged a war of extermination against 
the Canaanites, when they had gone so far in 
outrageous wickedness that the Holy Ruler of the 
Universe could only regard them as "vessels of 
wrath fitted for destruction." About his cradle 
had been sung, we may suppose, such grand war 
lyrics as the one Deborah and Barak sang, the day 
that God helped Israel until they destroyed Jabin, 
their enemy. 

" Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel, 
When the people willingly offered themselves. 
The kings came to fight, — the kings of Canaan to fight — 
God fought against them from Heaven, 
The stars in their courses fought against Sisera; 
The river Kishon swept them away — 
That ancient river, the river Kishon; — 
So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord: 

But let them that love thee be as the sun when he goeth forth in 
his might." 

Such as this, we can suppose, were the songs 
about his cradle ; and the stories told him were of 
Gideon, and Jephthah, and Samson, and all that 
long line of Old Testament heroes who "subdued 
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained pro- 
mises, escaped the edge of the sword, out of 
weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in 



8 

fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." 
And, besides, David, that mighty man of war, of 
whom the daughters of Israel sang, 

" Sanl hath slain his thousands, 
And David his ten tliousands," 

and who himself said, 

" The Lord is my rock and fortress: — 
He teacheth my hands to fight," 

this David was his father, and very surely must 
have trained his son to be ready to defend the 
right, to restrain and destroy the wrong. 

Thus, by reason of what came to him from 
the experience and teaching of others, Solomon 
learned that there were times when men must 
fight ; and although in his own reign he was deliv- 
ered from strife, yet he knew that such might 
come and must be prejDared for, as his " thousand 
and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand 
horsemen" do show. 

But, says some modern advocate of Peace, who 
persists in forgetting that God has said, " There 
is no peace to the wicked" : — but, say such, Solo- 
mon, wise as he was, was not as favored as we ; 
he lived in the dim light of the Old Testament 
dispensation, and is to be followed only when his 
doctrine accords with the fuller teaching of Christ 
and the Apostles. 



9 

This is undoubtedly so; aud except the New 
Testament teaches that there are occasions, when, 
to protect the right and defeat the wrong, men 
should wage war, no Christian minister could 
counsel any to draw the sword. But the New 
Testament does teach that evil must be opposed, 
and the right defended, at all costs, even that of 
life itself. 

In the first book of the New Testament, we 
find, " I came not to send peace, but a sword ;" 
and in the last, which pictures forth the closing 
scenes of Earth's grand tragedy, John writes 
that he " saw Heaven opened, and behold a white 
horse ; and he that sat upon him was called Faith- 
ful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge 
and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, 
and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in 
blood. And the armies which were in Heaven 
followed him. And out of his mouth goeth a 
sharp sword, that with it he should smite the 
nations. And he hath on his vesture and on his 
thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord 
of Lords." 

Surely the New Testament, as well as the Old, 
teaches that " The Lord is a Man of War ;" that 

Jehovah does not feebly oppose evil with a part 

2 



10 

of his nature, but strongly with all of it ; that 
He does not seek to restrain wickedness by argu- 
ment and persuasion only, but that, if needs be, 
He arrays his Omnipotence against it to its utter 
overthrow ; and this teaches those who would be 
the children of God, and follow as far as possible 
in the Heavenly Father's footsteps, that, when 
occasion arises, they must go forth to opj^ose with 
all their strength, evil, and the workers of evil, 
until all such be destroyed, or rendered impotent 
to injure. 

Excuse me, if I have seemed to take too much 
time to present the justification of war which has 
just been given ; and do not think that it is out of 
place in a discourse commemorative of soldiers 
who have died in their country's service. Rather 
is it a necessary part of such discourse — a highly 
necessary part, and on this wise : — Many, to-day, 
blindly follow unscrupulous Party leaders without 
stopping to think whither they lead them ; they 
only read, if they read at all, partisan papers ; 
they catch from these, or from others of their 
Party, certain party watchwords, and well-sound- 
ing but specious party phrases and arguments 
so-called; and these they repeat over and over 
again until they really believe them to be true, even 



11 

if, at the first sight, they knew them to be false. 
This is a true description of too many in all of 
the Parties into which our Nation is divided, and 
certainly applies to what is called " The Peace 
Party." 

For reasons of personal and party ambition, 
and because of political likes and dislikes, the 
active leaders of this Peace Party wish to create 
a popular dissatisfaction with the war which the 
nation now wages to preserve its life ; and one of the 
ways in which they endeavor to accomplish this, 
is to decry all war. They dwell upon the horrors 
of war — its bloodshed, its desolation, its cruelty ; 
and they present in her calm, sweet beauty, gentle 
Peace, and they magnify the blessings which come 
in her train. To obtain the most of credence to 
their doctrine, they refer to God's Word, and 
quote from it, and so deceive many. 

I meet with some who have been thus deceived. 
You may know some such. Some in our very 
midst have been so blinded by these leaders of 
the Peace Party, that, if you believe what they 
say, you must conclude that war is evil, and only 
evil, and that continually, and that all who take 
part therein are evil doers ; and that if any die 
fighting the battles of their country, they die as 



12 

wrong doers, and bat meet their just deserts. 
Such things are said openly by some in this very 
town, and are most fully implied in what others 
say, although they may not be at all conscious of 
what their words really mean. Catching the 
party cry, they denounce war and all who wage 
it ; and, what in some instances they would sooner 
lose their speech than do, they in reality malign 
those who stand between them and their enemies, 
and blacken the memory of the dead. 

This makes it necessary, when I speak in com- 
memoration of your sons, and brothers, and friends, 
who have died as brave men, true men, battling 
for Law and Order, for Democratic Institutions, 
for their Country's Life, — the prevalence of these 
peace doctrines makes it necessary, I say, when I 
speak in eulogy of your gallant dead, that I take 
the time to show you from out of God's Word, 
that there is a time for w^ar ; a time when, at the 
cost even of many precious lives, evil must be 
resisted, right maintained. 

Be not deceived any more. If, for instance, 
Fernando Wood, a man than whom there is not one 
in all the land more utterly corrupt and wicked, 
as all who know about him know, if he, or 
any other leader of the " Peace-at-any-terms " 



13 

Party, attempts to teach jou from out of the Bible 
that war is only wicked, and that therefore all 
who have died waging it have died as wrong doers 
and as the fool dieth, — if any, openly, or by impli- 
cation, tell you such things, be not deceived by 
them. 

Tell them that your Bible speaks of God as 
waging a war of utter extermination against all 
wrong ; that He has proclaimed, " No peace to 
the wicked" ; and that he often calls men to be 
co-workers with himself in destroying evil, and 
establishing the reign of that righteousness from 
above, which is to he first, pure, and then, and not 
until then, will be peaceable. 

But, again may object some Peace man, al- 
though, war, in some cases, as for instance our 
Revolution, may be right, and to die in such a 
strife most honorable, the war now waged by the 
National Government against the Confederate 
States is not such a righteous war, nor can those 
who die waging it be regarded as dying nobly for 
a good cause. 

This, however much the form of statement may 
vary, is in substance said over and over again ; 
and that no stigma may attach to the fair fame of 



14 

those whose devotion to their country we com- 
memorate to-day, I will endeavor to refute 
these attacks upon the present war, and upon the 
conduct of those who have gone forth to wage it. 
I will do this by directing attention to the wrong 
ends and evil methods, the false reasoning and 
wicked practice, of those against whom the war is 
waged; showing you, I hope, that those thus 
thinking and acting are so wickedly and hurt- 
fully wrong, that they must be opposed until they 
either be led to rej^ent of their wickedness and 
forsake it, or else be destroyed from off the face 
of the earth. 

I. And first, I think we can call the present 
war, as waged by the National Government, a just 
war, and say that those who die serving their 
country in it die honorable deaths, because that 
the war is waged by the National Government, to 
preserve the National Union. 

To break up the Union, separate themselves 
from the North, and establish themselves as a 
rival nation, has been the avowed purpose of the 
South since the war began. For many years the 
Southern leaders have taught the doctrine, as 
they speciously named it, of States Rights, and 
so of Secession ; and they forced, as it were, their 



15 

States into the present rebellion to the end of 
dividing the Nation. 

This was their avowed end and object when 
they plundered the National treasury, seized the 
National arms, fired upon the National flag ; and to 
defeat them in this evil purpose thus wickedly 
pursued, the National Government wages the pre- 
sent war against them. 

I repeat it. To destroy the Union was a chief 
reason for the commencement of the war on the 
part of the rebel leaders : to defeat them in this 
was the chief reason why the President of the 
United States, as his oath of ofiice bound him to 
do, proclaimed them rebels, and called forth the 
National forces, to prevent this destruction of the 
Nation's life. 

This was the state of the case when the war 
began : so^it continues to be until this hour, as 
the late " Peace Embassy " shows. 

And this attempt to divide the Nation is unpa- 
triotic, unnatural, and wicked ; and must be 
defeated, even if it cost many more years of sad 
strife to do it. 

It is unpatriotic, for it seeks to rend and des- 
troy the Nation ; and is unnatural, and therefore 
wicked, because it opposes that revelation of the 



16 

divine plan which is made in our country's sur- 
face and climate, and which appears in our past 
history, as I will attempt briefly to show ; present- 
ing first what may be called the Geographical 
argument against Secession, and then the Histo- 
rical, 

As the first and most obvious part of the Geo- 
graphical argument, I call your attention to the 
surface formation of our National territory. 

Very clearly, the portion of North America 
occupied by the United States, especially the 
part east of the Rocky Mountains, seems to have 
been intended for the dwelling place of one, and 
only one, Nation. From the Lakes and the St. 
Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio 
Grande ; and from the Atlantic to the Rocky 
Mountains, and to the Pacific, if we regard 
the passes of the mountains, the country ajD- 
pears to have been created for but one people. 
In the part east of the Rocky Mountains there 
are no natural boundary lines by which it may 
be divided into separate empires, and to establish 
such would be a plain violation of the plan of 
Nature. Not only has Nature not made arrange- 
ments for the division of this territory into 
separate parts, the South being separated from 



17 

the North, the West from the East ; but, on the 
other hand, she has indicated her purpose most 
clearly to have these several sections united as 
members of the One Political Body, whose several 
parts cannot exist in any true way, if dissevered. 
This appears, if we look at the great river sys- 
tems of our county ; that of the Mississippi Val- 
ley, for instance. 

A child's atlas shows us that from the Falls of 
St. Anthony and the source of the Ohio to the 
seven mouths of the Father of Waters there is 
to be free and friendly intercourse, such as would 
not be possible were the Union of the States dis- 
solved. 

Separate Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and 
Mississippi, from Oliio, Indiana, Illinois, Wiscon- 
sin, and Iowa ! 

As well might one attempt to separate the feet 
from the head, or to dam the Mississippi's flow 
with straw. Nature and Nature's God have put 
a prohibition upon such disunion, and sore disap- 
pointment will come, aye has come, to those who 
attempt it. 

The climate and the soil of the different sec- 
tions of our country also show us that God in- 
tended it to be the seat of One Great Empire, and 



18 

that a dissolution of our Union is unnatural, and 
therefore wrong. 

These are different, but not discordant. The 
whole land may be said to have that temperate 
climate, and that fairly fertile soil, which best 
help man to be a man. 

In no section are the inhabitants forced to a 
desperate struggle with a frozen earth and a 
freezing climaite, for bare subsistence, — such an 
all-absorbing struggle for bare life, that no atten- 
tion to that which beautifies and ennobles life is 
possible ; nor, as dwellers in the Tropics, are we 
the spoiled children of an over-wealthy house, 
slaves to jDassion, and averse to toil. 

No, our climate, and the same is true of our 
soil, is that of the golden mean, the one which 
most invites to labor, and so best favors the true 
growth of man, — it is the climate of the historic 
races, the one in which man has achieved his 
highest advancement. 

And that we have this climate, and a soil to 
correspond, is of God's appointing; and in it we 
can see a revelation of His will as to the Nation's 
greatness, and His disapproval of all endeavors 
to divide the land, and so prevent this great- 
ness. 



19 

God it was who caused all our territory to lie 
open to the polar winds in the beneficial way it 
does. He so moulded its surfoce that no barrier 
stops them in their swift journey from the Pole 
to our Southern shore ; for He made our mountain 
ranges to run north and south, and not east and 
west, as in the older world. Yet, owing to the 
north-east direction of the Atlantic coast, and 
the south-east trend of the Rocky Mountains, 
and the south-west course of the Polar currents, 
this cold wind does not pass directly from the 
North to the South, which would entirely change 
our climate, but it first strikes against the Rocky 
Mountains, then runs along their side, and, guided 
by them, descends the Mississippi valley and 
advances towards the Atlantic, in which course 
it meets the south-west trade wind, and so comes 
warmed to the North and East. 

And not only has God given us an helpful cli- 
mate as to heat and cold, but also as to moisture; 
and this secures the unrivalled fertility of our 
land, our river systems, and our ocean like lakes. 
The great inland opening of the Gulf of Mexico 
secures to a part of the Mississippi valley and to 
the Atlantic coast the wet wind of the Tropics ; 
and the meeting of this warm and water-laden 



20 

wid with the cold arctic current secures its 
condensation, and the giving up to the thirsty 
earth of its liquid treasures ; and the meeting of 
these two currents is so arranged for, that the 
land is not deluged, but receives its rain by 
degrees, as is most for its good. 

Who but God was it that placed our mountains, 
and scooped out a bed for our inland sea, so that 
our land might not want the early and the latter 
rain, and our climate should so highly favor man's 
best development ? 

And God it was, w^e know, who stored our 
country with its coal, iron, copper, lead, silver 
and gold. Surely He did not intend so goodly a 
land to be possessed by different and hostile 
nations, living, after the manner of the South 
American States, to each other's injury, and 
drenching its hills and plains, polluting its rivers, 
with the blood of oft-recurring wars. No, this 
could not have been his design Avhen He made 
the land so capable of greatly better uses, for 
" The order of nature is the foreshadowing of that 
which is to be." 

Thus, we can read in a language whose letters 
are rivers, mountains, seas, and we hear it spoken 
to us by viewless winds, that the endeavor now 



21 

being made by the Southern leaders, and their 
allies in the North, to destroy the Union of the 
United States of North America is unnatural, and 
therefore wrong; and that all who oppose this 
endeavor, do right; and that those who have died 
to prevent it, have made for themselves honorable 
graves. 

So I would present to you the Geographical 
argument against Secession, and its attemjoted 
destruction of the Nation's life ; let me now briefly 
present the Historical evidence against this wrong 
endeavor to prevent our National greatness. 

All students of the past must have noticed the 
westward and upward march of History. Starting 
in Asia, the cradle of mankind, the course of 
empire has always tended to the West, and to a 
higher civilization. First, we see the huge mon- 
archies of the Orient, with traditions cramping 
the mind, and superstitions debasing the heart ; 
with insurmountable social distinctions, and gov- 
ernments as inexorably tyrannous as was the Fate 
the people hopelessly feared. Next, we see the 
beautiful, but not the good and true civilization 
of Greece, celebrating with song and festival the 
dawning freedom of human consciousness and 
human action. Then, with stately step marches 



22 

before us Imjoerial Rome, establishing law and 
order with an iron hand, and uniting into one the 
nations of the earth. And now, when " The fullness 
of Time" has come ; when the Greeks, by diffusing 
a common intellectualism, have made a positive, 
and by their failure to satisfy man's spiritual 
nature, a negative preparation for the extension 
of Christianity ; and the Roman organization and 
selfishness has done its part towards effecting the 
same end, — when all things are thus made ready, 
Christ appears to heal the universal moral mal- 
ady, and be a Consoler to the troubled human 
heart. In the few succeeding centuries, using the 
Greek culture and the Roman unity, Christianity 
wins, in outward form at least, the dominion of 
most of the then known world. Next come the 
barbaric invasions, so necessary to break wp the 
corruj)t Roman sj^stem Avhich weighed as an in- 
cubus ujDon mankind ; and, following these, enter 
in the Dark Ages, hiding from our view the chaotic 
struggle between the various forces of society, out 
of which resulted a new political, intellectual, and 
religious life, — of which Magna Charta, the Print- 
ing Press, and the Reformation, may be taken as 
the symbols. 



23 

And now, when the new life of the j^resent and 
the future is begun, then, and not until then, are 
the portals of the New World thrown open to the 
civilization of the Old, and it permitted to take 
root in a virgin soil. 

For many centuries, our hillsides and prairies 
had been ready to bless the labors of the husband- 
man ; our treasures of coal, and iron, and gold, 
impatiently waited to reward him who would 
release them from their dark prisons ; and our 
lakes and rivers yearned to clasp the friendly 
keel. 

Was it chance, think ye, that kept all these 
concealed from the superstitions and despotism of 
the East ; the polytheism and discord of Greece ; 
the infidelity and cruelty of Rome ; the corrupt 
Christianity, the feudal oppression, of the Dark 
Ages ? 

Away with the atheistic thought. It was but 
the out-working of the plan of Him who furnished 
this land with capacities so wonderful, to assist 
man to attain to his possible greatness. 

As a continuation of the evidence now being; 
presented, to show that God in History, which is 
but a record of his appointing and permitting 
will, forbids that destruction of our National 



24 

greatness which the disunionists attempt, I call 
your attention to the important fact, that, with 
slight exceptions, our territory was settled by 
Protestants, and has been controlled by them 
since its first population. 

The New England States, Pennsylvania, Vir- 
ginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, were settled by 
Protestant Englishmen ; New York, by Protestants 
from Holland ; New Jersey, by Protestant Danes ; 
and Delaware, by Protestants from Sweden. 

Of the original colonies, only Maryland was 
Catholic; and her settlers were English Catholics, 
a widely-different class from Spanish Catholics, 
who, so greatly to her injury, peoj^led South 
America. 

The English, that race which is so richly en- 
dowed with the combined excellencies of many 
noble races, chiefly exerted a moulding influence 
upon the colonies which were destined to become 
our Nation. We can well thank the Great Father 
of men for this controlling influence ui)on our 
rising destinies, of a race derived from the Friso- 
Saxons and Anglo-Saxons, with an intermixture 
of Scandinavian and Norman blood, and, despite 
the Roman possession of England, with scarcely 
a particle of the worn-out Latin stock, — on which 



25 

exclusion of inherent influences fron the Roman 
race, depends " a long chain of exclusions of 
priestcraft and tyranny and centralized govern- 
ment, whose good effect has not yet ceased to 
be." 

The colonies, once planted, thrived apace, and 
were, in a most remarkable manner, disciplined 
and developed so as to achieve their independence 
of European control, when it had once been 
declared ; and to maintain it, too, even if domestic 
traitors do plot to deliver their land over into the 
power of a foreign lord. From 1689 to 1775 they 
were engaged in four wars, occupying, in all, 
twenty-seven years, and making them in essential 
respects a military people, and creating, by the 
union and intercourse they made necessary, a 
National spirit. During this same period, the 
population increased from 200,000 to 3,000,000 ; 
and the trade and commerce of the country was 
so prospered that in the ten years preceding the 
revolutionary war the average annual exports were 
$20,000,000, and the imports 17,500,000. 

Nor was their prosperity confined to merely 
material things. They had established and main- 
tained churches, and schools, and colleges ; and in 
intelligence, morality, and religion, the people 



26 

would compare favorably with any of their 
cotemporaries. 

So did they grow and prosper. So was the 
vine which the Lord planted here in the wilder- 
ness made to thrive until it took " deep root," 
and began to fill the land, and many " hills Avere 
covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs 
thereof were like the goodly cedars." 

It was the Lord's doing, and is " marvellous in 
our eyes." 

Yes, it was the " Lord's doing," the work of 
Him who doetli " that which seemeth Him good," 
and whose good pleasure it is, we know, to estab- 
lish justice, and freedom, and the right, upon all 
the earth, and for all the inhabitants thereof. He 
was our Fathers' God, and from their being few 
and weak. He made their strength glorious, and 
exalted their horn, and proved their sure defense. 

And to what end ? Surely, for nothing less 
worthy than to found a State, which, not for some 
few past years imperfectly, but with ever-increas- 
ing perfections during many generations yet 
unborn, should be an Apostle to the enslaved and 
degraded nations of our earth, of the Liberty which 
the Bible teaches ; and this chiefly by helping each 
one of her own inhabitants to be free and exalted 



21 

with the true manhood of those who know and 
follow Jesus Christ, loving their God supremely, 
and each fellow child of the One Heavenly Father 
as themselves, without regard to his wealth, or 
his pedigree, or the color of his skin. 

The Lord hasten it, and, disappointing those 
who wish otherwise, make this Nation in very 
truth such an Apostle of Liberty; or, I would rather 
say, such an Epistle of Christian Liberty to be 
known and read of all men, with not one dark blot 
on any of its fair pages, but showing only that 
which is just and right in the record of its national 
life, so that the oppressed of all lands, as they 
look upon it, can jDraise God for such an example 
to the nations. 

II. A second reason for saying that the war 
now waged against the Rebel States is a just war, 
and that those who die waging it die worthily, is, 
that the war is waged to prevent a violation of 
the Constitution, and thus a subversion of the 
form of the government handed down to us from 
the past, so greatly to our benefit. 

Secession is unconstitutional ], is in ojoen defi- 
ance of the Constitution, and a direct attempt to 
make it null and void, and thus an attempt to 



28 

subvert the form of government which Adams and 
Jefferson and Washington formed and bequeathed 
as a precious legacy to the after generations, — and 
such an attempt is wrong, and cannot be permitted 
to succeed. 

The Constitution was made to strengthen the 
Union, and the attempt to divide the Nation is as 
unconstitutional, as lawless an act as can be at- 
tempted ; and so can be arraigned as a twofold 
crime, 1st, against the Union, and 2d, against the 
Constitution. 

A reference to the Constitution itself, and to 
the circumstances attending its formation, will 
show us that Secession is most certainly against 
the Supreme Law of the land. 

Soon after our fathers had been enabled to 
achieve their independence of a Government which 
allowed them no representation, and only oppress- 
ed them, they found that the Articles of Federation 
formed for the war then ended were not such a 
basis for a permanent form of government as was 
desirable. These Articles were virtually only a 
league of friendship between the colonies for the 
war ; and to establish a National Government 
which would be stable at home, and command 



29 

respect abroad, some such thing as the Constitu- 
tion was needed 

Virginia, yes, Virginia ! — the mother of Presi- 
dents, glorious in the past, as we hope she will be 
in the future, despite the infamy of her present 
position, — Virginia was the first State that moved 
in the matter. 

Her legislature proposed that commissioners 
from the several States should meet in Annapolis, 
tn 1786, to consider what should be done in view of 
the defects of the existing system ; which conven- 
tion arranged for a similar meeting, in Philadelphia, 
the ensuing May. 

This second convention was composed of dele- 
gates from all the States except Rhode Island, 
They were in session four months, and then 
adopted the present Constitution of the United 
States, which was subsequently ratified by the 
citizens of all the States, and became, by their 
own election, the Supreme Law over them. 

What was aimed at in this establishment of the 
one Constitution for the whole country, is thus 
expressed in its preamble. 

" We, the peojile of the United States," — notice 
these words, " We, the people of the United 
States." The States, as such, did not form, and 



30 

therefore cannot annul the Constitution : its 
formation was a National act, and therefore it can 
only be changed or abrogated by like action taken 
by the people of the whole land. " We, the people 
of the United States, in order to form a more 
perfect Union, (surely Secession does not do this,) 
to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, 
(this certainly was not done by those who fired 
on Fort Sumter,) provide for the common defense, 
promote the general welfare, (who can say that 
the Southern leaders endeavor ' to promote the 
general welfare ' of the whole country ?) and 
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
our posterity, do ordain and establish this Consti- 
tution for the United States of North America." 

You see how positively the preamble to the 
Constitution refutes the claims, and condemns the 
action, of the Rebel States ; and the articles follow- 
ing this preamble equally show their theory and 
practice to be unconstitutional. Thus, in Section 
8, Article I, to Congress, and to Congress alone, is 
given the right " to raise and support armies ; to 
provide and maintain a navy" ; and upon it is 
devolved the duty, [I quote the very words,] " To 
execute the laws of the Union," and " suppress 
insurrections." 



31 

How completely is the Southern theory of State 
Sovereignty refuted by such clauses as the follow- 
ing, from Art. VI. : " This Constitution, and the 
Laws of the United States which shall be made 
in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law of 
the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound 
thereby, anything in the Constitution or Laws of any 
State to the contrary notwitlistanding.''' 

There is no such thing possible under the Con- 
stitution as Secession, and what is sometimes so 
called is a gross violation of the Constitution, is 
REBELLION ; and, being an unprovoked rebellion 
against the most beneficent Government the sun 
ever shone upon, and for the avowed purpose of 
founding an empire whose corner-stone should be 
" The sum of all villainies," it is like unto that 
revolt of the arch conspirator which drew from 
Heaven to " blackness of darkness forever" one- 
third its sons ; and, being thus wickedly uncon- 
stitutional, all good men, certainly all who honor 
the Constitution, will give high praise to those 
who have given themselves to the glorious work 
of defeating the wicked attempt. 

There may be circumstances which will justify 
a rebellion, as that of 1640, in England, which 
grew out of the illegal attempts of Charles I. to 



32 

levy taxes, and to force upon the people an 
oppressive ecclesiastical system ; or that of our 
fiithers against the unjust enactments of a Parlia- 
ment in which they were allowed no represen- 
tation. 

So a rebellion may he justifiable, but who will 
venture to assert any such justification for the 
rebellion of our Southern States ? Were they 
denied a fiiir representation in Congress, or sub- 
ject to unlawful taxes, or were their rights of free 
religious worship interfered with 1 No, nor in 
any other way did the government they rebelled 
against work them injury, as they themselves do 
testify. 

In November of 1860, Alexander H. Stephens, 
now the Vice President of the Confederacy, then 
an ardent opponent of Secession, charged upon its 
advocates, whom he callad " disappointed great 
men," the endeavor to destroy what had been in 
his wording of it, " The most beneficent Govern- 
ment of which History gives us any account." 

Thus the Vice President of the Confederate 
States testified to the unjustifiableness of the 
rebellion which he now supports ; and during the 
session of 'GO and '61, Jefferson Davis, the Presi- 
dent of the rebellious States, spoke of the govern- 



33 

ment he was then plotting to destroy, as being 
" The best Government ever instituted by man, 
unexceptionably administered, and under which 
the peo^^le have been prospered beyond compari- 
son with any other people whose career has been 
recorded in History." 

So Alexander H. Stephens and Jefferson Davis 
say ; out of their own mouths are they con- 
demned. Yes, they, i. e. the leaders of this 
rebellion, can most truly be said to act unconsti- 
tutionally, and that too without any justification ; 
can be rightly charged witli an unwarranted 
attempt to destroy a form of government which 
had proved highly beneficial to them, and all other 
parts of the land, and to all the world besides. 

The arch conspirators were, as Mr. Stephens 
said, " disappointed great men," who saw passing 
away from them that monopoly of the Government 
they had long enjoyed, and who therefore resolved 
to ruin, when they could no longer rule. 

Such is their wicked purpose, and to strive to 
defeat them in this, is right, grandly right ; and 
to die, so striving, entitles one to as high praise as 
it did to die in Thermopylae's bloody pass, or on 
the empurpled sward of Bunker Hill. 
5 



34 

But, once more may object some Peace man, 
i. e., one who cries out for immediate peace, even 
if it requires a yielding to the rebels all their 
claims, and involves a dissolution of the Union, 
and a subversion of the Constitution: — but, some 
such may say, in all your justification of the war 
as waged by the National Government, and your 
praise of those who have died in it, you say 
nothing of Slavery, for the vindication of their 
rights in respect to which, as you know, the 
South claims to be fighting. 

That there may be left, as far as my ability 
can prevent it, no occasion to denounce the war, 
and those who wage it, in the way just alluded 
to, I will very briefly consider the relations of 
the war to Slavery. 

In my opinion. Slavery is at the bottom of the 
war. I believe, that, as some of them with reck- 
less audacity say, the Southern leaders planned 
it, began it, and are carrying it on, to the end 
of founding an empire whose " corner stone" is 
intended to be human bondage. 

This I believe, but such a belief does not at 
all lessen my condemnation of the crime they 
attempt against the Constitution and the Union ; 



35 

for it adds to their otherwise heavy guilt, the 
greater crime of sinning against Humanity. 

I believe, I say, that Slavery is the chief cause 
of the rebellion, but not in the way that some 
opponents of the war waged to repress the rebel- 
lion would have you believe, viz., because the 
rights of the South in respect to Slavery had 
been attacked by the Federal Government ; and 
that you may see the truth in this matter so 
obscured by party prejudice and clamor, I will 
briefly give you the facts of the case. 

When the Constitution was formed. Slavery 
existed in some of the States, but it was expected 
that it would soon be given up by these, as it had 
already been by the others who had once allowed 
it. 

With this in view, the framers of the Constitu- 
tion never once mention slaves by name, but 
when it is necessary to refer to such, speak 
of them as "persons" simply, or as "persons 
held to service or labor," which expressions 
apply equally well to indentured apprentices. 
Mr. Madison, of Virginia, one of the framers of 
the Constitution, and afterwards President, says 
that the reason for this was, that those framins: 
what they designed to be a permanent Constitu- 



36 

tion for the Nation, expected the early extinction 
of Slavery, and therefore so worded the Consti- 
tution that when Slavery did cease to exist, it 
should still be, by reason of their forethought in 
thus wording it, an appropriate Constitution for 
the Nation. 

So James Madison says, and who knew the 
minds of the framers of the Constitution better 
than he ? 

Not only does the Constitution regard Slavery 
as temporary, but also as local — a domestic insti- 
tution of the States where it existed ; nowhere, 
not even by the remotest implication, does it refer 
to it as National. 

So long as the Slave States were content with 
what the Constitution allowed them, viz., the 
maintenance of Slavery as an institution domestic 
to themselves, there was peace between the North 
and the South; but this did not last long. By the 
invention of the cotton-gin and the spinning- 
jenny, the manufacture of cotton was greatly 
increased, and so the demand for the raw material ; 
and this put new life into the dying slave system. 

As their rude culture of the soil soon exhausts it, 
the owners of slaves, before long, wanted new and 
rich land to cultivate ; and hence arose the endca- 



37 

vor to plant Slavery in the public territory, and 
to make it National. 

Another reason for this endeavor was, that 
those who, because of its increased profitableness, 
wished to perpetuate and extend Slavery, sought 
to control the General Government for its per- 
petuation and extension, and to this end wished 
to found new Slave States, so that in the Senate 
and House of Representatives they might over- 
rule the growing North. 

The North, partly from selfish motives, no 
doubt, and in part, and that too increasingly, from 
principle, resisted these endeavors of the South 
to extend its local institutions over the National 
domain. The conflict came to its first climax in 
1821, upon the question of admitting Missouri into 
the Union. 

A false, surface peace was made by the Missouri 
Compromise, by which Missouri was admitted as 
a Slave State, on the condition that all the terri- 
tory north and west of Arkansas should be 
dedicated to Freedom forever. 

Time does not remain to review our subsequent 
political history ; nor is there need, for you know 
it. You know how shamelessly the Missouri 
Compromise was set aside by the Kansas-Nebraska 



38 

bill ; and how the South increased in arrogance, 
acting out its plantation manners, even in the 
Halls of Congress. 

You know how Senator Toombs declared in the 
Senate Chamber, that before he died he would 
"call the roll of his slaves on Bunker Hill," and 
how a minion of the slave power attempted to 
murder Senator Sumner in his Senatorial seat ; 
and you have not forgotten the atrocious wrongs 
perpetrated in bleeding Kansas. 

Slowly, but surely, the North awoke to its 
danger, and realized its wrongs, and the Repub- 
lican Party was formed. We had been warned 
for many years against the coming evils by far- 
seeing men, but did not care to heed their warn- 
ing, and too often treated them as Israel did its 
prophets, making them pay sore penalties for 
being in advance of their age, and for their fidelity 
to what they saw and felt; but at last we learned 
by a bitter experience that they were right, and 
out of this perception grew the Republican Party. 

This Party had for its great principle the 
making Slavery to be what the Constitution 
intended it should be, viz., local, and not National. 
What the Slave States do within themselves, it 
said, is only their concern, and we will not meddle 



39 

with it ; what they do, or attempt to do, outside 
of themselves, in the affairs of the Nation, con- 
cerns us, and in all lawful ways we will attend 
to it. 

Defeated in 1856, this party w^as successful in 
1860, and the Southern leaders — not the people, 
for if a fair vote could have been taken, the 
Southern people would have voted against rebel- 
lion — the Southern leaders fired the mine they 
had prepared in view of such a result, and 
attempted to destroy the Government, which in 
constitutional w^ays, and to constitutional ends, 
was passing from their sole control. 

Can any one deny it ? 

If some one attempts to deceive you in this 
matter by senseless clamor about Abolition and 
Abolitionists, remember the fads of the case as 
they have been given you, and do not let them 
lead you astray. 

Up to the commencement of the war, the 
North was Anti-Abolition — strongly so, and cer- 
tainly the Federal Government, against which the 
Southern States rebelled, had always been Anti- 
Abolition, and when it came under the direction 
of the Republican Party there was no valid reason 
to fear a change, for it was clearly announced as 



40 

the radical principle of this Party, that Slavery 
was to be regarded as an institution domestic to 
the States in which it existed, and, within these 
States, completely subject to their local legislation. 

To confound the old Abolitionists, such as 
Garrison and John Brown, and the Republicans, as 
their party existed when the war began, (as some 
through ignorance, and others through guile 
persist in doing,) is as contrary to the truth, as to 
call a Vallandigham, plotting with the rebels to 
destroy the Union, a true member of that 
uncorrupted Democratic Party, of which Andrew 
Jackson was the mouth-piece when he said, " The 
Union must and shall be preserved." 

I repeat it, Up to the commencement of the war, 
neither the Government at Washington, nor the 
North as a whole, manifested any disposition to 
interfere with Slavery in the States where it 
existed ; and what a few individuals scattered 
here and there throughout the North had done to 
so interfere, was no more a sufficient reason for 
the attempt to subvert the Constitution and rend 
the Nation, than the coming of mice now and then 
from my neighbors' houses to eat my provisions, 
would be a sufficient reason for my attempting to 
burn the whole village to ashes. 



41 

Since the war began, a change has taken place. 
Finding that the South was using its slaves to 
help it wage its wicked rebellion, the Federal 
Government declared these contraband of war, 
and treated them as such ; and afterwards, after a 
long delay and full warning, the President issued 
his Proclamation of Emancipation, and now, as in 
honesty, and honor, and good policy, he is bound 
to do, he holds firmly to it. 

I see God's overruling hand in this. Slavery 
is an evil thing, and God in his providence ever 
wars against evil. He saw that Slavery was evil 
— evil for the masters, for He beheld them made 
by it ever more and more lustful and passionate ; 
evil for the slaves, for He heard their cries and 
groans ascending continually from sugar planta- 
tions, and rice and cotton fields, where men and 
women toiled under the lash, and from auction 
blocks where families were parted forever, and 
where woman's beauty was put up for sale; and, 
therefore, because he saw it to be so evil, — so 
hurtful to master and slave — God condemned it, 
and if the indications of his providence are inter- 
preted by the teaching of his word, can be seen 

6 



42 

overruling the rebellion for the destruction of 
the evil thing. 

At first, the Government and the North did not 
understand God's purpose, and endeavored to 
leave Slavery intact. But it ivas not to be. God so 
governs men, that often the wicked, when they 
attempt to establish the wrong, are made to help 
establish the right ; and, as we now begin to see, 
He is directing this conflict to the destruction 
of that wicked system of human bondage, which, 
through its chosen leaders, began the strife, 
intending thereby to extend and perpetuate its 
hideous power. 

So the slave leaders purposed, but God wills 
otherwise. 

" Thy will be done." 

I have now spoken to you in eulogy of those 
who, having gone forth from your midst to serve 
their country, have died in her service. 

I have not spoken vague words of general 
praise, such words as one might a23provingly 
repeat, and with the next breath denounce the 
war and malign those engaging in it ; but I have 
endeavored to show you that the war, as waged 



43 

by the Federal Government, is a righteous war, 
and that those who have gone to fight in the 
National army have done right in thus going, and 
that those who have died when fighting their 
country's battles have died honorable deaths. So 
speaking, I believe I have most usefully eulogized 
your gallant dead, and spoken in the way they 
themselves would have chosen, could the choice 
have been offered them. 

The list of those whose worthy deaths we 
commemorate, to-day, as far as their names have 
been handed me, reads : 

1. James P. Bell, who died in Washington, July 
26, 1864, from wounds received before Peters- 
burgh. 

2. Andrew B. Van Buren, who enlisted August 
12, 1862, and died in Washington June 20, 1864, 
from a wound received in the battle at Cold 
Harbor. 

3. Jacob Schlemer, who volunteered in August, 
1862, and was killed at Cold Harbor May 30, 
1864. 

4. William Schlemer, who first enlisted in the 
spring of 1861, at the commencement of the war, 
was discharged after a year's service because of a 



44 

severe wound, re-enlisted in August of 1862, and 
was shot at Gettysburg!! on the 2d of July, 
1863. 

5. Albert Smith, who volunteered October 15, 
1861, and was killed in the assault on Port 
Hudson, May 27, 1863. 

6. David Rose, killed at Getty sburgh, July 2, 
1863. 

7. Jose23h Cryne, killed in an assault on Pigeon 
Mountain, near Ringgold, Georgia, November 27, 
1863. 

There are others whose names should be added to 
this list, but whose friends have neglected sending 
them to me ; and many others, as Buckmeen, 
Higbee, Abraham Smith, and John Van Buren, 
have gone forth from this community to risk their 
lives at their country's call. 

We should honor these men, for they have 
honored us, securing to us the honor of having 
heroes for our townsmen. 

Glad honor, I say, to those of this noble band 

who live ; sorrowful, but not regretful honor to 

the gallant dead. They have died bravely fight- 

V ing against those who seek to extend the area of 

Slavery, and who, to this infamous end, recklessly 



45 

violate the Constitution, and madly seek to rend 
the Nation ; and, so dying, they have made their 
memories honorable forever. 

Although dead, they yet speak. Listen, and 
3^ou can hear them. From the cemetery on yon 
hill top, from the soldiers' burial place at Gettys- 
burgh, from beside the Virginian river, from the 
Nation's capital, where their worthy dust reposes, 
they speak to their fathers, their brothers, and 
friends, the very words God speaks to us to-day 
in his providence and in our text : "A time of 
war ! Be of good courage, and let us play the 
men for our people : — and the Lord do that which 
seemeth Him good," 

Yes, from out of their honored graves they say, 
" Be of good courage," and act as men for the 
Country's sake. 

Be not moved, they say, to cry out for an 
ignominious peace, because the prices are high, 
and the taxes heavy, and another draft is 
appointed. 

Do not let any, they utter in tones of warning, 
persuade you, through alliance with fear and 
selfishness within your breasts, that these evils 
are to be charged upon the Federal Government ; 



46 

when in truth the Rebellion is the cause of them 
all. 

Do not, they beseech you, consent to any com- 
promise with the South, because you love infa- 
mous plenty, and base safety, more than Country, 
than Humanity, than Right. 

If you do, they will haunt you, for then you 
cause their self-sacrifice to be useless, and accuse 
them of folly in dying as they did. 

No, no, do none of these things, but remember- 
ing the true origin of the evils which now afflict 
the land, and hating with a righteous hatred those 
who have brought them upon us in their wicked 
attempt to make Slavery perpetual and universal 
in our land by a subversion of the Constitution 
and a destruction of the Union, let us oppose them 
to the uttermost, being strong with "good cour- 
age", so as to act the part of men for our people. 
Let us do this, trusting in that omnipotent and 
righteous Lord who doeth " that which seemeth 
Him good." 

He surely will not deem it " good" that faithful 
and patient striving to save the Nation shall fail 
of a grand success ; and if we will but act as men 
and do our full duty in this time of war, very 



47 

soon — the signs of the times all presage it — very 
soon the Rebellion will be crushed ; Slavery, its 
cause, will be destroyed ; the Union will be pre- 
served ; the Constitution, maintained ; and Peace, 
a true Peace whose sure foundation will be Right- 
eousness, will bless the land. 

The Lord hasten it in his own wise way. Amen. 



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